Blockchain's First Smart Contract Platform
Ethereum, conceived in 2013 by then-19-year-old Vitalik Buterin, revolutionized decentralized applications (DApps) by introducing programmable functionality beyond Bitcoin's limited scripting. Initially a Bitcoin community developer, Vitalik proposed—and later built—a more flexible platform after his ideas were rejected by Bitcoin maximalists.
Key Milestones
2014
- Ethereum Yellow Paper published
- Successful ICO raised 31,529 BTC (≈$18.4M)
- Establishment of Ethereum Foundation (non-profit)
2015–2016
- Frontier launch (PoW-based)
- Homestead upgrade (first stable release)
- DAO hack → ETH/ETC hard fork
2019–2022
- Constantinople hard fork
- Beacon Chain launch (PoS)
- Historic Merge (September 15, 2022)
Why Ethereum 2.0?
Scalability Challenges
- Network congestion → High gas fees
- 1,300x peak-to-trough daily transaction volatility
- Competitors (Solana, Avalanche) gaining traction
The Three-Phase Solution
Beacon Chain (Live since 2020)
- PoS consensus layer
- 18M+ ETH staked (≈$30B)
The Merge
- Eliminated energy-intensive mining
- Reduced ETH issuance by 90%
Sharding (2023–2024)
- 64 parallel chains
- 100–1,000x throughput gains
Post-Merge Roadmap
Vitalik's Five Goals
- ✅ Merge: PoW → PoS
- 🚀 Surge: Sharding for scalability
- 🌳 Verge: Verkle trees (storage efficiency)
- 🧹 Purge: Simplified state management
- 🎉 Splurge: Ancillary upgrades
Immediate Focus:
- Layer 2 adoption (Optimism, Arbitrum)
- Next-gen DApp development
FAQs
Q: Will ETH staking rewards increase post-Merge?
A: Yields currently average 4–6%, with withdrawals enabled post-Shanghai upgrade (2023).
Q: How does sharding improve gas fees?
A: By spreading data load across 64 chains, base-layer congestion drops—complementing L2 rollups.
Q: Is Ethereum now "greener" than Bitcoin?
A: Yes. PoS reduced energy use by 99.95%.
👉 Discover Ethereum's latest upgrades
Ethereum's evolution continues to shape Web3. With scalability solutions underway, its dominance seems poised to grow—fueling new DeFi, NFT, and metaverse innovations.